Cape Town – The Office of the Public Protector is reportedly taking action to recover funds irregularly paid for the benefit of the former head of the institution, Busisiwe Mkhwebane.
According to The Citizen, the office disclosed this during a briefing to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice and Correctional Services regarding its 2022/2023 annual report.
The expenses in question include the substantial costs of Mkhwebane’s accommodation.
During the meeting, it came to light that the Public Protector’s office was gathering invoices related to Mkhwebane’s rental and legal expenses to ascertain the amount she is required to reimburse.
As per the office’s CEO, Thandi Sibanyoni, these payments for Mkhwebane’s accommodation led to the accumulation of R2.1 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Mkhwebane lived in the Bryntirion ministerial estate in Pretoria from February 2017, claiming threats to her life as the reason, until she was asked to move out in 2022.
Former Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane could be forced to repay R2.1 million irregularly paid for her stay at a luxury Pretoria estate. Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka told Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development today that the… pic.twitter.com/ZkzZQEaXmo
— eNCA (@eNCA) October 13, 2023
The monthly cost of the house she occupied was reportedly R55,000, which increased to over R60,000 in 2020.
In 2021, she moved into a flat in the ministerial estate, which cost the Public Protector’s office R11,000 in monthly rent.
The office informed Mkhwebane that it could not cover her accommodation expenses, and she subsequently relocated to a less costly place.
“The former public protector was very well advised on the issue of the home that she was living in hence at some stage she had to move to a less costly place, whilst we were still verifying with Saps [South African Police Service] the circumstances under which she was living at that accommodation which was paid for by the office.
“We then subsequently received the information and Saps having said there was no authorisation from their side in a form of the security report. It is then that the institution requested the public protector to vacate the house, so it was brought to her attention,” the report quoted Acting Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka as saying.
Sibanyoni, revealed that Mkhwebane disregarded advice that the office could not cover her accommodation costs, EWN reported.
The Public Protector’s office is currently scrutinising all irregular payments made for Mkhwebane’s personal benefit, which includes expenses like personal cost orders from the courts and legal fees related to a defamation case against the Democratic Alliance, a case initiated before her appointment to the office, the report said.
Sibanyoni stated their intent to calculate all the funds that may have been wrongly disbursed from 2016 to the present.
Initially, Mkhwebane was informed by the chief of staff that the Office of the Public Protector couldn’t fund her rent for a ministerial housing complex she moved into in 2018.
“Subsequently we found a letter that was written by the then minister of public works that said she needs to sign a stop order towards the payment of rental,” said Sibanyoni.
President Cyril Ramaphosa dismissed Mkhwebane in September after 318 Members of Parliament voted in favour of her impeachment.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
